The Price of Victory
by Rubens Lilium
Summary: ONE-SHOT. The human child and King Asgore battle for each other's SOUL...but is the cost really worth it? {SPOILERS for anyone who has not completed Undertale}


**Disclaimer : _Undertale_ and all its characters and settings belong to Toby Fox**

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 **The Price of Victory**

It was a fierce battle, one that Lord Asgore was by no means prepared for. Neither mentally or physically. And the day had started out so nice, too...the birds had chirped so beautifully, the sky seemed brighter and the flowers were so full of life... He hadn't anticipated for such a wonderful day to come to an abrupt, terrible end.

The child had walked in kind and quietly. They politely waited for Asgore to finish tending to his garden without making any sort of indication of annoyance for waiting. He hoped it may have been Undyne, come to inform him on the lack of human activity. Or possibly Papyrus stopping by to give Asgore some of his home-made spaghetti. He always looked forward to their visits, for it was nice to be acknowledged by those who saw him not just as a king but as a friend, as well.

But when Asgore had turned to greet his guest, his warm smile cracked. It shattered into thousands of pieces amongst the flowers, where even the joy of such a bright, happy day lay into smithereens. The child gazed upon the king with an innocent expression, the same innocence the others before them had bared. Asgore could also spot a knowing within the child — among the innocence and wonder every child carried — a knowing of who Asgore was and the things he had done.

His heart only grew heavy, as the king made his way to the barrier...the silent youth following from behind.

He owed it to them to prepare for the battle, even going so far as to give them the opportunity to return to anything they had left unfinished. The child deserved the the chance to fight without any lingering regrets weighing them down. Asgore had given the other children the same chance. It was the only honorable thing to do, even if the wait would agonize his conscious with guilt.

Asgore was surprised to find the child came fully prepared, sporting a stained apron and pulling out a dagger. He turned to face them, but stopped shortly. He could see the trembling in the child's grip as they pointed the dagger meekly with both hands. Their once innocent expression was now filled with dread and terror of the battle that was about to wage.

Asgore's guilt wracked his heart.

"Human..." he said, and then he gave the young child a warm smile, hoping they would understand his intentions weren't out of malice. "It was nice to meet you. Goodbye."

Without warning, the king of monsters drew his weapon. A mighty unstained red triton.

He saw the child flinch away. Asgore would have broken down into a tearful mess right there, had he not been thinking of the fate of his world resting on his shoulders. He wished Alphys had found an alternative — bless her sweet heart he knew she tried — so it wouldn't have had to come to this. He would gladly welcome this human into his kingdom and offer them a cup of tea...but there was no chance of such a thing happening.

Asgore summoned his white fire, and the human did their best to avoid each blast, fractions of their clothes getting singed brown. The bright red heart gleaming from the front of their chest shined bright with DETERMINATION, yet, when they had an open opportunity to strike, they never brought the blade anywhere near Asgore.

Instead, they told Asgore they had no intention to harm him.

He held his head heavily and brought forth more of his white fire, sending them at the child from all sides, random floods pouring in from the left or right side of the room. Asgore watched the human dodge and leap from each attack that came their way, steadily understanding Asgore's attack patters. He waited for them to attack once again...but instead he received firm command from the human to stop fighting.

Asgore made no response. He knew there was no way the human was going to attack...it seemed he was going to have to bring more force into this battle.

Taking his weapon in a firm grip, Asgore leapt at the child. His eyes shimmered in a pattern — orange, orange and blue.

Surprisingly, the human seemed prepared for that. They moved when his triton turned orange. It slid right through their body, leaving no damage. But they miscounted when it turned blue. The third strike left an opened gash on the child's arm.

Blood streamed from the wound, even staining the knife in their hand.

Panic overtook the human, flashing their alarmed gaze between Asgore and their gash.

"Attack me or perish." The king said harshly, still avoiding their eyes. "Do you want to die in vain, or do you want to live and return home? It is your choice, human!"

Asgore struck again, and again, and again and again. The human frantically avoided series of attacks, noticing the king of monsters growing closer with passing minute. They tried to keep the gap wide by dodging backwards, but Asgore was bound to end this as quick as possible. The knife trembled violently in their hand.

It served well to block the sharp points from cutting them any further. It was only a matter of how long that would last. Terrifying thoughts ran through the human's mind — Would Asgore really kill them? Would he really add them to his collection of SOULS and take over the Earth? Would it be right to use _his_ SOUL to break the Barrier?

None of this made sense. None of this felt right.

Over and over again the human told Asgore they weren't going o fight, absolutely refusing to even make any inclination to do so. This seemed to make the king more frustrated. Suddenly, with a growl, he shot forward again. He grabbed and lifted the child up by their collar and began shouting.

"Don't you understand anything?!" he demanded, the once soft gentleness that once hummed in his voice was gone. It boomed like thunder in an angry storm. "You are the last SOUL I need to break the Barrier! I am going to rewrite the wrong done to my people — our future depends on it!"

As hard as he could, Asgore threw the child to the ground. The knife dropped from their grip on impact. The human coughed, blood trickling from the corner of their mouth, cringing and wincing at the painful tightness in their lungs from the loss of breath. They turned to Asgore. They were surprised to find him looking straight at them with his head held high.

"But you would not understand our pain, would you?" he asked, as if thinking his thoughts aloud. "You have always lived in the sun, smelled the fresh air, gazed upon a beautiful night sky..."

Asgore began sauntering the child's way. When they saw the cold look in his eyes, they searched for their knife. Upon spotting it, the human began to desperately crawl for it. However, Asgore's stride was faster.

"The humans ripped the beauty of the world above from us without so much as a sympathetic glance. We did nothing to provoke such violence from them, but that did not stop them from taking my baby boy away. Why should I show any mercy to one of their young after they stole one of mine from me?"

Asgore knew he was speaking like Undyne, but this battle had gone on too long for his heart to bare. If one of them didn't come out victorious, then both Asgore and the human's actions would all be for naught. They started this with the intention to return to the Surface, and only one of them would.

The child crawled faster for their weapon, but Asgore took the opportunity and leapt at them once more. The human flashed just a momentary gaze upwards to catch a glimpse of the red trident falling their way. They bit their bottom lip.

They gathered all their strength to move out of the way of the king's impale at the precise moment, snagging the knife in the process. As quick as they could, the child was back on their tiny feet. There was a break in Asgore's defense, they could see it. As the adrenalin pumped through their body, the human seized the opportunity and dashed forwards with the blade aiming for his chest.

Asgore had not expected them to react so fast. Before he realized it, the child had already closed in.

 _Silence._

The chirping of birds were nowhere to be heard.

The only sound was of the king's violently pumping heart.

Asgore was frozen stiff, as he expected to feel the sharp pain of the knife plunged in his chest, or feel warm blood seep his clothes. That had to be why it was so silent. He never heard his kingdom silent, especially on such a gorgeous day. The child had found and stolen the perfect moment to strike a fatal blow. There was no possible way...

Asgore finally had the sense to look down. His eyes widened, for it was not what he had anticipated to see.

Indeed, the human had brought their weapon to his chest...but it never moved. The point of the blade stayed true to its aim, waiting for it's wielder to make the final move. But the wielder was trembling much too hard to do so.

He wasn't sure what was happening. Yet he continued to wait for the child to move, to sink the blade into his flesh. Was this some kind of game humans played? To make their opponent wait to die? Asgore wouldn't put something so awful past a human. They didn't hesitate to murder an innocent, so of course they wouldn't mind making their enemy suffer —

He stopped, as the knife fell out of the child's trembling grip. He watched them slowly back away, their hands over their face. They began to shake their head in utter refusal.

That was when Asgore heard it...the sound of a crying child.

It was faint. So faint that he thought he was hallucinating. Until the human lifted their head from their hands. The tears fell like drops of rain down their face, washing through the bloodstream on the corner of their mouth. He heard them sniff and choke, as if at the point of sobbing. The human stepped back and shook their head again, only this time they were looking Asgore directly in the eyes. They didn't have to speak for him to understand what they were saying. It was louder than the sound of roaring winds across a hurricane.

Asgore's cracked heart finally shattered. His weapon dropped out of his hand. He stared at the human...no. He stared at the child. They finally looked away, sniffing and hiccuping back a quiet sob.

It was then he began looking them over, observing the burns his fire had left on their arms and legs, at the bleeding wound on their arm and at the marks he'd left when he tossed the child to the ground. Asgore's hands tightened into giant fists at his sides, tears threatening to spill from his own eyes as the horrible reality finally caught up with him

 _What had he done?_

Asgore fell to one knee weakly, the weight of his actions were too much to bare with both legs.

"What have I done?" he said aloud. The shock alive in his voice. "What h-have I...become?"

How did his morals become so clouded? Indeed, Asgore wanted to save his subjects from a meaningless life below grounds, but at the price of...of this? To kill a poor, helpless child?

"That's all you really are." Asgore said, speaking to the crying youth. "A child. Despite everything you must have gone through, you are just a lost child trying to get back home. And I..."

Asgore didn't have the heart to continue that sentence.

A tear finally slipped down his cheek. Asgore brought his hands to the child's face, cupping both their wet cheeks. Their head was only half the size of his hands, but he still took them with such a gentleness, as if he was tending to one of his precious flowers in the throne room.

Their tearful stares met. For a moment, Asgore could have sworn he'd seen his dear sweet innocent little Asriel. Little Asriel. Tenderhearted Asriel, who never got the chance to fully live his life. It pained Asgore to think of him, especially after doing so many unforgivable things. He'd almost wished the child _had_ stabbed him...

He saw another tear fall down their face. Asgore softly wiped it away with his thumb.

"Forgive me, little one," he whispered, sorrowfully, "I know I do not deserve it. But please know that...I am so sorry for putting you through this."

No victory was worth this. This poor child had done nothing to deserve such a horrid fate. Asriel wouldn't have wanted this. Poor Tori had tried everything to get Asgore to see that. Thanks to his blind rage, he was all alone now. Without a queen and a son, there was hardly anything for Asgore to hold onto. His flowers were his only comfort in his loneliness, but it seemed all they had done was numb him from the reality of losing his two most precious treasures.

The human saw the tears in Asgore's eyes, leaving them somewhat speechless. Papyrus and Undyne had mentioned how kindhearted their king was, but it wasn't until Alphys had confessed the truth about breaking the Barrier that they were questioning their own choices thus far.

Although Sans had praised them for gaining love without gaining LOV (whatever that meant) even he made it seem there was going to be no alternative when facing Asgore. It actually made the human afraid to confront the king, so much so that they took a weapon with them in case bad things came to happen.

And just as they thought, they weren't prepared. Physically or emotionally.

Now they realized: neither was Asgore.

They were told on their way here what had happened to his son, which made them question their actions even more. It almost made them feel that they didn't deserve to be spared, even though they weren't the person who killed his child.

Asgore was just someone torn between being a grieving father or a strong willed king.

It made the human start to wonder if this was how Toriel felt after they left the Ruins...

With this thought in mind, the human child brought themselves closer to the king. They clung to him, holding him tightly.

Asgore was so moved by this. It brought forth more tears, and he wrapped an arm around the small child in return.

Neither of them were sure what was going to happen after this.

All they knew for sure was that there would be no victory.

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 **Author's Note :** Phew! About time I posted something, right? So unless you haven't found out already, I have come to love and adore almost everything about 'Undertale'. This game was one of the best RPG's I have ever played. I enjoyed every moment of it (even if some of the Boss fights drove me near the brink of insanity *chough* Mettaton EX *cough*) I don't think my love for 'Undertale' will die down anytime soon, so to show my love here is one of the possibly many stories I will post :)

The very first ending I got was the Neutral one, where you fight Asgore and then you have to fight Flowey. I was literally scared out of my wits when Asgore murdered my MERCY option. I thought I was going to mess up my own Pacifist Run and get a really bad ending (and if you've played 'Undertale', you know why I was worried.) I thought it would be fun to write from the perspective of both Asgore and Frisk during the battle.

Let me know in the reviews if you've played 'Undertale' or how you felt about the Neutral Ending :) Thank you


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